What does “strategic workforce planning” mean to you? Do you know how to use it to your advantage when growing your company?
According to the Society for Human Resource Management, strategic workforce planning “is the process an organization uses to analyze its workforce and determine the steps it must take to prepare for future staffing needs.”
In other words, it’s the steps you take today that will impact your organization in the future. If you neglect to analyze your current workforce and plan accordingly, you could find yourself scrambling to meet your staffing needs down the road.
There are many reasons why workforce planning is critical to the overall health of your organization. Here are some of the top benefits associated with this process.
Without a strategic workforce planning model to guide you, you’ll likely miss out on one or more of these benefits among others.
Your approach to the strategic workforce planning process is based largely on your current situation, short- and long-term goals, and the direction your company is headed. There are four steps you can take to implement a plan that suits the individual requirements of your company.
This is an analysis of your company’s current labor supply. How many employees do you have? How do these employees fit within your company’s many departments?
The goal of the supply analysis is to thoroughly review your company as it currently exists. You’re not looking toward the future at this time. You’re only focused on the here and now.
In addition to the current number of employees, make note of details such as:
For example, if a large portion of your workforce is nearing retirement age, you can expect the turnover rate to increase in the years to come. Neglecting to plan for this could leave you with a talent shortage as employees begin to retire.
Unlike the supply analysis, the demand analysis is used to forecast your company’s future needs. Use it to answer questions such as:
Planning for demand today allows you to take immediate and effective action in the future. You’ll know exactly what to do no matter what situation you face.
The gap analysis is designed to compare the supply model and the demand model to determine current and future needs. Some of the most important details to focus on during a gap analysis include:
Ideally, you’ll find that the gap between the supply model and demand model is slim. But even if this is the case, there’s always room for planning for the future.
Speaking of planning for the future, this is where the solution analysis comes into play. It’s geared toward addressing current staffing shortages and future needs through recruiting, training, employee development, staffing, and outsourcing.
It’s not good enough to take the three previous steps. They’ll help you understand your current situation, think about the future, and identify potential challenges, but they don’t solve any problems.
The solution analysis allows you to confidently answer questions such as:
The answers to these questions help you decide which action to take. For instance, if you need to grow your workforce, turn your attention to recruiting. But if you need to restructure your organization, staffing or outsourcing may make more sense.
With each passing year, more companies realize the benefits of hiring talent from around the world. Gone are the days of scouring the local area for the most qualified employees. The world is now at your fingertips.
Global workforce planning is a subset of strategic workforce planning. Use it to do the following:
As you do these things, you can also forecast your future needs and how you’ll approach them.
If global workforce planning is on your mind, Oyster can help you with everything from hiring to paying to managing your remote team. When you take care of your global team, they’ll take care of you!
Oyster is a global employment platform designed to enable visionary HR leaders to find, hire, pay, manage, develop, and take care of a thriving distributed workforce. Oyster lets growing companies give valued international team members the experience they deserve, without the usual headaches and expense.
Oyster enables hiring anywhere in the world—with reliable, compliant payroll, and great local benefits and perks.